The Art of Negotiation
by wideopeneyes
Summary: The air-conditioning's out in Djose, and Rikku is not above torturing Gippal to get him to fix it.


_AN: Written as a very, very, very belated birthday fic for Vegetaspr1ncess. _

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"_For cryin' out loud, Rikku, would you_ _put on some freakin' pants_!"

Rikku winced at the sound of the furious bellow. She removed her safety glasses, setting her jaw stubbornly as she turned to face Gippal.

"I will _not_," she said with an icy glare. "It is _hot_, in case you haven't noticed, and the air conditioning's been out for a week. _You _get the air conditioning fixed, and I will _consider _wearing pants."

Her ponytail whipped him in the face as she spun around, dismissing him. For good measure she bent over, relishing his agonized groan. If she had to resort to wearing a bikini in the workshop just to stay cool, well, then, he was damn well going to suffer the consequences.

She'd just about finished tightening a bolt when a stinging pinch on her rear made her shriek and jump. Only she forgot she'd been working under the hood of a hover, and ended up slamming her head into it.

"Ouch!" she wailed, shooting a poisonous glance at him over her shoulder. "What did _I _ever do to _you_?"

"_You_ have been walking around like _that _all morning." He wagged a finger in her face patronizingly. "You leave anything exposed that's typically covered by the uniform, and it's gonna get pinched."

"I would've thought you'd be _happy_." She thrust out her lower lip in a pout. "Just _look _at all the business you're getting." She motioned to the line forming outside of the workshop – a line comprised primarily of men with small, portable, and easily fixable machina. A few of them Gippal _knew _were capable of fixing their own machines. Obviously they'd lined up for the sole purpose of getting a glimpse at the hot female mechanic working in a bikini.

"Yeah, like I want business from men whose only interest is ogling my girlfriend." He glared right back.

"Well, then, it seems we are at an impasse. I'm not going to put any pants on until _you _get an air-conditioning technician out here. There's at _least _two in Bikanel that can be here in a few hours." She smiled sweetly.

"No can do. I have better things to spend money on right now than air-conditioning. A little heat isn't going to kill you, so suck it up and get dressed." He frowned at her.

Her smiled widened, so dripping with saccharin sweetness that he felt vaguely nauseous. Then, ever so slowly, she uncurled her fingers and let her wrench fall to the ground.

"_Oops_,"she gasped. "How horribly _clumsy _of me! I'll just get that." With deliberate slowness, she bent over to retrieve the tool she'd dropped.

Gippal was suddenly aware of the hush in the room. Normally the workshop was a riot of noise – laughter, curses, even the occasional vulgar, highly suggestive song rent the air – but now it seemed that no one had anything better to do than to stare at Rikku's fabulous behind. Which he promptly pinched.

"Would you _stop _that?" She complained.

"When _you _stop bending over," he replied. He whirled on his employees. "Next person I catch staring at my girlfriend can clean out their locker," he growled. Then he turned to the line formed outside and issued another ultimatum. "Next one of _you_ I catch staring at my girlfriend is banned from Djose for a year!"

Sullenly, about half the crowd dispersed, gathering up their machines and grumbling as they went. One young man pulled a set of batteries from his pocket, popping them back into the "broken" machine, which miraculously began functioning again.

Fairly growling with frustration, Gippal stalked back towards the main building.

"Where are _you_ going in such a snit?" Rikku inquired innocently, secure in the certainty that he'd be headed for the nearest commsphere to call out a technician.

Gippal turned, allowing her to savor her imagined victory for all of ten seconds before he promptly crushed it.

"I'm hiding your pants," he said. "The way I see it, you've got a few more good pinches coming to you!"


End file.
